1984 anti-Sikh riots were government orchestrated, claims new book

New Delhi, Dec 13: The 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that claimed the lives of an estimated 8,000 people in Delhi and around the country were not spontaneous as has been made out but were government-orchestrated, says a scathing new book on the four days of mayhem, adding it’s time the world took note of the killings, as it did of the slaughter of a similar number of Bosnian Muslims in 1994.The book titled “1984 — India’s Guilty Secret”, written by Pav Singh, was released recently.“

At the time, the authorities projected the violence as a spontaneous reaction to the tragic loss of a much-loved Prime Minister. But evidence points to a government-orchestrated genocidal massacre unleashed by politicians — with the trail leading up to the very heart of the dynastic Gandhi family — and covered up with the help of the police, judiciary and sections of the media,” the author claims.

“It is believed that key players in the then Congress government used the increasingly volatile situation in Punjab to blur the perception of the Sikh community in the eyes of their fellow citizens,” writes Pav Singh, a member of the Magazines and Books Industrial Council of Britain’s National Union of Journalists.

The Delhi HC on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea by the SIT probing anti-Sikh riots cases, seeking to cancel the anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar. Justice Anu Malhotra heard the arguments of the counsels for the SIT, Kumar and riot victims, and said it would pass an order. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the SIT, argued the trial court’s order of granting anticipatory bail to the leader was ‘perverse’.